Videos

On Thursday, 10 November 2016, the event “What is essential for transparency under the Paris Agreement?” took place at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference (COP22). This video by IISD Reporting Services highlights the role of different actors and rules for transparency and accountability related to forests and land use mitigation and adaptation.

Peatlands are gaining increasing global attention for their potential contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as their values to livelihoods.On the sidelines of the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference on 11 May 2017, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) together with the European Space Agency (ESA), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU Jena) and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) held a side event on ‘Re-discovering the magnificent carbon storage potential of wetlands and peatlands’.Speakers presented the latest findings on tropical peatlands, including research by CIFOR that suggests there may be three times more peat in the tropics than previously reported.Find out more about the side event and CIFOR’s involvement in Bonn here: http://www.cifor.org/cifor-at-sbsta-46/

Experts from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) have been working with the local community in Dompas village, Riau for several months, advising on measures to tackle peatland fires. Riau province has the most frequent fires in the whole of Indonesia. One of these measures is rewetting the degraded land by blocking canals and replanting native vegetation that local villagers can sell and eat, thus introducing a viable economic and environmental alternative to burning land for agricultural purposes.

The Global Wetlands Map plots the distribution of wetlands, histosols – or peaty soils – and their carbon stocks around the world. Visitors can freely access the data via the online map or by download, while registered users can verify data and add their own.The initiative comes from the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Program (SWAMP), a collaborative effort between the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the United States Forest Service, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).To access the map, visit: www.cifor.org/global-wetlandsTo learn more about SWAMP, visit: www.cifor.org/swamp

To stem the effects of climate change on the country and its people, Ethiopia is looking towards forestry as a key solutionCIFOR, in partnership with Ethiopia’s Ministry for Forests, the Environment and Climate Change, worked to identify the current challenges for the country in regards to Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR).Read more: http://blog.cifor.org/tag/ethiopia/

HE Constãncio da Conceição Pinto, Timor-Leste’s Minister for Commerce, Industry and Environment, delivers an address on 4 August 2016 at the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
Leaders in public, private and community sectors from across the Asia-Pacific gathered to discuss the future of the region’s forests at the Summit held from 3-5 August.
Visit the event website: http://www.cifor.org/asia-pacific-rainforest-summit/

Marina Cromberg, CIFOR consultant has been working with communities in the Amazon to find out what they think about schemes to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Her research earned her a Prof Elinor Ostrom International Fellowship on Practice and Policy on Commons.Find Marina\'s transcribed interview here: http://bit.ly/11MxhxlFor more information on IASC click here: http://bit.ly/QjG20L

The Paris Agreement highlighted a strong role for forests in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and finding new opportunities for REDD+. In this plenary session at the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit, panelists discuss how the region can work together to support Nationally Determined Contribution commitments made under the Paris Agreement. The role of government was a particular focus, including approaches for policy, governance and regulation to sustainably manage forests.
Moderator: Patrick Durst, Senior Forestry Officer for Asia and the Pacific, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Presenter: Nur Masripatin, Director General of Climate Change Management, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia
Panel speakers:
· Henning Hj. Johansen, Minister Counsellor - Deputy Representative to ASEAN, Norwegian Embassy Jakarta, Indonesia
· Peter Holmgren, Director General, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
· Justin Lee, Deputy Head of Mission to Indonesia, Government of Australia
Leaders in public, private and community sectors from across the Asia-Pacific gathered to discuss the future of the region’s forests at the Summit held from 3-5 August.
Visit the event website: http://www.cifor.org/asia-pacific-rainforest-summit/

Pacific island ministers shared their concerns about forests and climate change at the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit. In this video: HE Matai Seremaiah, Vanuatu’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity; and HE Osea Naiqamu, Fiji’s Minister for Fisheries and Forests, share perspectives from their Pacific island nations.
Leaders in public, private and community sectors from across the region, including ministerial-level representatives from 13 Asia-Pacific countries, joined the regional Summit that was held from 3-5 August in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
To learn more, visit the event website: http://www.cifor.org/asia-pacific-rainforest-summit/

Gender and forests are re-emerging as central in the global sustainable development agenda. CIFOR and other forestry and environmental research organizations attempting to integrate “gender” into their research can learn from 40 years of scholarship on gender, development, and environment. Just as a collection of trees does not make a forest, “gender” is not simply a collection of women, or relations between women and men. Extensive analytical and empirical work on “gender” reveals that there is much heterogeneity among women, and that their social positions depend not just on their relations with men but are interconnected with their class, ethnicity, geographic location, and age. That is, understanding the gendered dynamics of forest management and/or sustainable development requires acknowledging the heterogeneity of gender relations and the fact that they are not just a product of local factors but are also shaped by broader political and economic forces.
For watching the previous Science@10 presentation, please go to the CIFOR TV here

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded areas.CIFOR’s FLR research work is funded by the International Forestry Knowledge (KNOWFOR) Program.KNOWFOR aims to provide policymakers and practitioners in developing countries with useful evidence, tools and analysis on forests, trees and climate change.See this link for more info: https://www.iucn.org/content/introducing-knowledge-and-tools-forest-landscape-restoration-project

The deforestation-free movement (or “zero-deforestation”) has emerged recently in a context of lower state control, globalization, and pressure on corporations by NGOs through consumer awareness campaign, acknowledging the essential role of agricultural commodities in deforestation. It takes the form of commitments by corporations to ensure that the products they either produce, process, trade or retail are not linked to forest conversion.
Indonesia is primarily concerned by this movement. Ambitious targets have been set with concrete action on the ground, and typically go beyond forest conservation to also include peatland management and social issues. Regarding the zero-deforestation component, its implementation relies essentially on the two complementary methodologies High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) and High Carbon Stocks (HCS).
Yet the movement is in its early stages and significant challenges remain for it realize its full potential. There might be contradictions between the achievement of conservation benefits and the recognition of rights for rural populations in a context of significant pressures on the land and remaining uncertainties in land tenure. Public authorities will also have to be involved to a much greater extent to provide a supportive legal framework. Rather than relying strictly on separate commitments to clean supply chains, another approach based on jurisdictions or even at a national or regional scale might be complementary to tackle deforestation globally. With the main groups previously involved in huge deforestation and abuses of communities’ rights, the legacy issue should not be neglected. Impacts of the movement on smallholders is another issue that deserves a lot of attention as there is a risk that smallholders eventually suffer from these commitments in access to land and/or because of market fragmentation.

CIFOR Scientist Louis Putzel introduces a new special issue of Society and Natural Resources available here: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/usnr20/28/5#.VVLEkWauW8k
These articles are the product of a CIFOR project funded by the EC. For more information, see http://www.cifor.org/pro-formal.Responding to multiple problems affecting governance of natural resource access and trade, governments implement formalization processes, often driven by the interests of development agencies. In so doing, they interact with the contemporary political, social, and environmental contexts in which resources are extracted, produced, and traded. They also contend with histories of ownership, access rights, market configurations, and practices attached to resources and the lands in which they are located. As development policy, formalization frequently materializes as top-down restructuring based on current social and environmental norms. However, its adoption is often unsuccessful and entails risks including leakage, barriers to small or poor actors, elite capture, and negative effects on women or marginalized groups. The insights herein are informative to current processes of formalization associated with the European Union (EU) timber trade regime and other resource governance efforts. At the minimum, incorporation of adaptive approaches and user-accountable monitoring in such processes are recommended.To watch previous Science@10 presentations, please go to CIFOR TV
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ1FEAFDHOWcnCwld2Qjio_vqHIExpcwG

The coming year will be a crucial time for science that impacts forests and people. Find out what the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) will be working on in 2017.
For more information, visit: http://www.cifor.org/

CarboScen is a relatively simple bookkeeping tool to estimate the carbon implications of land-use scenarios, developed by scientists from the University of Helsinki and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).In this video tutorial, the University of Helsinki’s Stella Thompson speaks with CarboScen’s lead researcher, Markku Larjavaara, about who might find the tool useful, where they can find it, and what they can use it for.For more information, visit: http://www.cifor.org/gcs/toolboxes/carboscen/

Amy Duchelle, Scientist in the Forests and Livelihoods program at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), speaks on the sidelines of the 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13), held from 4-17 December 2016 in Cancun, Mexico.
Duchelle presented research results on the impacts of REDD+ interventions on forests and people at an event titled, ‘Improving the evidence base on the effectiveness of forest conservation and rural livelihoods initiatives in delivering social and ecological benefits’.
Learn more about CIFOR’s involvement in CBD COP13 at:
http://www.cifor.org/cifor-at-cbd-cop13/

Manuel Guariguata, Principal Scientist on tropical forest ecology and forest management for production and conservation at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), speaks on the sidelines of the 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13), held from 4-17 December 2016 in Cancun, Mexico.
Learn more about CIFOR’s involvement in CBD COP13 at:
http://www.cifor.org/cifor-at-cbd-cop13/

Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), speaks on the sidelines of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), held on 16 November 2016 in Marrakesh, Morocco.Now in its sixth installment, the Forum is undergoing a transformation, from focusing on policy advice to implementing action on the ground and tracking progress toward new climate and development goals. Through scientific input, capacity-building programs, online engagement, thematic symposiums and global events, GLF aspires to introduce one billion people by 2020 to the landscape approach – and connect them in embracing it.The GLF is more than just a series of events: it is a dynamic platform with which diverse stakeholders can collaborate to create a more sustainable world.Join the movement to reach 1 billion people: #ThinkLandscape

What connects forests and energy? Hear from Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and Himlal Baral, a scientist in CIFOR’s Forests and Environment Program, in conversation with Forests News Editor Leona Liu on the occasion of the UN International Day of Forests on 21 March 2017, with the theme ‘Forests and Energy’.
Read more on Forests News: http://blog.cifor.org/48930/splitting-hairs-over-splitting-wood?fnl=en